ooh, interesting. it seems i’m not the only one thinking about designer knockoffs these days.

A new legislation seeking to grant copyright protection to designers has been introduced, and Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez have been in Washington to plead their case before Congress. But it seems like even if it passes, it won’t really do much to deter the copies because “designers would have to prove that a copy is ‘substantially identical’ to their originals, rather than ‘substantially similar.’ And they would have to prove that their designs were truly original, that the defendant’s design was an infringement and that the defendant indeed had knowledge of their work. Also, similarities in color and patterns would not count.” (NYT)

well, that doesn’t sound very easy.

As ABS by Allen Schwartz (who created the royal wedding dress copies) said: “It’s hard to prove… Can you imagine? These people would go around saying they made the first asymmetrical dress. It’s egocentric and it’ll never fly.”